IFYS 05

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Chapter 5

“An engagement ring? Now that I think about it, the design does look familiar.”

Of course it did.

This was the ring they had had made for their engagement ceremony.

Because Aiden had run away, it had never left its case after the day it was purchased, but Olivia had kept it very carefully.

The reason was simple.

The two of them were still not officially broken up.

She knew perfectly well that it was a pitiful excuse.

She also knew that she was foolishly clinging to a rope that the other person had already let go of.

But she had no regrets.

After such a long period of patience, hadn’t the ring finally found its rightful place?

Now that she had returned it to its owner, Olivia truly had no lingering regrets.

She smiled refreshingly.

“Anyway, you’re not normal either. No, actually, this is probably for the best. I had something I wanted to say to you anyway.”

As he spoke, Aiden pulled firmly on the ring.

“…What? Why won’t this come off? What’s going on?”

“It won’t come off for three days.”

“The head of the Imperial Mage Corps personally placed a special spell on it.”

At her whispered explanation, Aiden jumped to his feet.

“Where does something like that even exist?”

Where? Right here.

With Eugene’s help, Olivia had managed to obtain a ring that would never come off her hand for three days.

There was only one reason she had put such a spell on the ring.

“Three days.”

Olivia answered with a bright smile.

It was strange.

She really was happy to see Aiden.

She meant it sincerely…

And yet, for some reason, she felt something bubbling furiously inside her chest.

That feeling immediately appeared on her face.

As if she had never smiled in the first place, Olivia wore an expression filled with sorrow and spoke each word slowly and deliberately.

“The amount of time that passed between us signing the engagement papers and you running away, Brother.”

So, at the very least, they had maintained their engagement by mutual agreement for that amount of time.

Aiden hadn’t been able to wear the ring back then, so wasn’t it only right that he complete those three days now?

Olivia genuinely thought so.

Perhaps her words had left him with complicated feelings, because Aiden’s attitude changed in an instant.

He stopped fidgeting and raging, instead looking at Olivia with calm, subdued eyes.

Quietly, he said,

“Let’s sit down. We should talk sitting down.”

He took off his uniform jacket and spread it out on the ground.

He had been acting as though he had forgotten every last bit of etiquette, yet apparently he hadn’t forgotten this kind of gentlemanly behavior.

Thinking about that made some of Olivia’s sadness fade.

She quietly sat down on his jacket.

Facing each other in military uniforms rather than dresses and formal suits felt strangely unfamiliar.

The rustling of leaves against one another.

The chirping of birds weaving through the still-unripe branches.

The earth, warmed by the spring sunshine, was brimming with vitality. Even though there were no particularly loud sounds, the place somehow felt bustling with life.

“It’s been three years. This is the first time we’ve met since… that day we parted.”

Breaking the silence of the spring day, Aiden finally began speaking about the empty past left between them.

Olivia remembered that day.

One of those days when they had eaten together as usual, gone for a walk, and imagined what their life would be like after becoming engaged.

“Olive. I’m sorry, but no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I can do this.”

“What do you mean?”

“…It’s the annulment papers. I’ve already signed them. You just need to sign yours and submit them.”

“Please explain this properly. We only got engaged three days ago!”

“That’s why. That’s why it can still be undone.”

After calmly escorting Olivia, who had frozen in shock, back home, Aiden disappeared the very next day.

Naturally, both families were thrown into chaos.

Not only the Kishier Marquisate, but the Oblivion Duchy as well, were horrified by Aiden’s bizarre behavior and began searching for him.

But they couldn’t find him.

Aiden had immediately applied for an assignment with a knight order that very day and disappeared to somewhere no one knew.

“I never thought he could be this irresponsible. How could he do something so absurd?! Break off the engagement. I’ll find you a better husband. There are plenty of men much better than that—”

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not breaking off the engagement. No matter what happens.”

“Olivia!”

For quite some time, the Marquis and Marchioness Kishier had done everything they could to persuade Olivia.

Persuasion, pleading, threats…

There was nothing they hadn’t tried.

But Olivia refused to yield either. If anything, the more they tried, the more stubbornly determined she became.

For this reason, the Marquis and Marchioness Kishier hated Aiden.

They had trusted him, and therefore felt an even greater sense of betrayal.

“Yes. I have a lot of things I want to say, too.”

“You go first.”

“No. You go first, Brother. I think this is going to take a while.”

Aiden stared down at Olivia without answering. Then, with a short sigh, he slowly began to speak.

“I heard the annulment papers still haven’t been filed.”

It was an unexpected statement.

Who had told Aiden that?

He couldn’t have casually kept track of whether the annulment had been processed while stationed somewhere he couldn’t even exchange letters unless they were work-related.

Either someone had told him, or there was some reason he needed to know.

Olivia desperately hoped it was the former.

Because if it was the latter, she thought she might become very angry.

“How did you know?”

Aiden didn’t answer.

But Olivia thought she understood exactly what his silence meant.

I hoped it wasn’t.

She had truly hoped something like that would never have happened.

“Don’t tell me… you were planning to get engaged to someone else?”

Then you really are trash.

Swallowing those words, Olivia clenched both fists tightly.

“Just tell me you were trying to find out whether I had properly filed the annulment papers.”

“…Olive.”

“Please! At least tell me that!”

This is too humiliating.

Olivia loved Aiden.

From as far back as she could remember, she had never once stopped loving him.

It had been a quiet love that seeped into her little by little, but by the time she realized it, her heart had become completely filled with feelings for Aiden.

She had never once considered letting him go.

But that didn’t mean she hadn’t been hurt.

She had loudly insisted that if anyone was going to break up with the other, she should be the one to do it first.

But buried beneath all that bravado were the wounds of heartbreak and a shattered sense of pride.

Aiden seemed flustered, his movements becoming restless.

“Olive.”

“I don’t know.”

“Olive, listen to me.”

And what are you going to do if I listen?

Hearing his explanation wouldn’t erase the wounds Olivia had suffered.

Her first love, the person with whom she had dreamed of a happy future, had ended things after only three days of engagement without even giving her a reason.

The love that still remained in her heart was now closer to love-hate, and Olivia both loved and hated him.

Did they really think I was going to kill my fiancé?

Of course not.

But she truly, sincerely hated him.

Enough that she occasionally felt rather violent impulses.

Naturally, Olivia had also been thoroughly educated as a noble lady of the Kishier family, so she had been very good at suppressing those impulses.

“Olive.”

Aiden knelt on one knee in front of Olivia, who was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, bringing their eyes level.

The posture made him look almost like someone proposing to her, which made Olivia feel a little sad.

“Don’t put too much meaning into things like marriage or engagement.”

“Brother. I learned a few choice swear words after coming here. I think this qualifies as—bullsh—”

“Damn it. Those idiots in the Department of Knight Studies really are a bad influence. They’ve filled your head with strange things.”

No, you’re the one who’s been the worst influence on me.

Aiden covered her mouth with his hand, and Olivia, looking thoroughly displeased, bit down hard on his palm.

He flinched and immediately pulled his hand away from her mouth, then hurriedly tried to explain.

“It’s true that I was… considering an engagement. But it was something I did out of necessity.”

“So you’re saying your plan was ruined because I refused to break off our engagement?”

“It’s… sigh. Yes. If I had to summarize it, that’s basically it.”

In other words—

While Olivia had entered the Department of Knight Studies and suffered through every kind of hardship imaginable, rolling around in every direction and enduring one ordeal after another, Aiden had been preparing to build a new life with another woman.

At this point, Olivia wasn’t even sad anymore.

She simply couldn’t understand it.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why was she acceptable, but I wasn’t?”

What did I lack compared to her?

All that remained in Olivia’s heart now was stubbornness and anger.

Flames began to burn fiercely in her eyes.

“Do you even love her?”

“What? Don’t say ridiculous things. I don’t believe in love.”

“Then what is it?”

Faced with Olivia’s relentless questioning, Aiden fell silent for a moment and stared at her.